


Xenophilia

by friendlyneighborhoodfairy



Series: FNF's Nonbinary Month fics 2020 [6]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fluff, Genderfluid Character, Genderfluid Partner, Marriage Proposal, Other, drinking with Cana, lol idk how to tag, lots of them - Freeform, referenced orgasmic bliss, thoughts on gender
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-16 11:07:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29949042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/friendlyneighborhoodfairy/pseuds/friendlyneighborhoodfairy
Summary: Meledy loves her partner, even if she doesn't understand what it means for Ultear to be genderfluid. Talking with other enbie friends, she realizes how freeing it is for herself, not just her partner, to eschew gender roles between them.
Relationships: Meredy & Yukino Aguria, Meredy/Ultear Milkovich, side of Cana Alberona/Juvia Lockser
Series: FNF's Nonbinary Month fics 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1843501
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1
Collections: Nonbinary Month 2020





	Xenophilia

**Author's Note:**

> Fairy Tail (Meltear) + genderfluid.
> 
> Yes, I know it's 2021. I'm still really sick, so idc.
> 
> **Do not copy to another site.**

Meledy admits to enbies Juvia and Cana that she doesn’t understand what it means to be not a man or a woman. She respects them both so highly, obviously, and would never misgender them. But they’re having a deep discussion one day (over a barrel of booze Cana brought over, which has Meledy and Juvia just a little drunk) and Meledy says she wishes she knew what it meant, what gender even _is_ , but she doesn’t.

“I don’t want to be a woman,” Juvia slurs. “But I’m not a guy.”

“You’re Juvia,” Cana says with a sappy smile on their face, and leans in to give their datemate a smacky kiss.

“I am,” Juvia agrees (as they chase after Cana’s mouth).

“I’m Meledy,” Meledy says. “What does that make me?”

“A friend!” Cana says triumphantly, and Juvia throws their arms around Meledy in a warm and sloppy hug that makes Meledy forget, for the time being, her inability to understand other genders.

But maybe it’s not entirely true that she can’t fathom it, she thinks later. She understands the way Ultear’s shapeshifting affects Ultear’s sense of sex. She has linked herself with them at times when they’ve used it.

It’s just…not something she can put words to.

Ultear is like a liquid, fluid and changing, and it works for them and it makes sense to Meledy. Maybe knowing each other most of their lives helps with that.

Or maybe it’s the way Meledy knows them when the two of them are wrapped around each other in the muggy darkness of their room, when Meledy has her fingers inside them pushing in and out, knowing them; when Meledy connects her mind with theirs at the moment of excruciating joy and they cum together, screaming and panting. It’s like being one, so physical it goes beyond physical and becomes a meeting of minds. In the soulspace of orgasmic pleasure, floating together, things like gender don’t matter—they can’t even take shape. It’s just them, so profound that trying to box it up would ruin and shatter it.

“I think gender is another word for personality,” she says to Yukino as they’re on an inter-guild mission together.

“What, so like introverted? Happy-go-lucky? Confident is a gender?” Yukino chuckles.

“No, like…” Meledy tilts her head to the side. “I think long ago, the act of being pregnant and nursing had a significant impact on the duties one would carry out in one’s community. So they began to see the primary sexes as these two different roles, based on whether you were out of commission for hunting for nine months. The people who could get pregnant learned tasks that involved sitting still, and got better at them than the people who could go running after predators. So over time, those different roles got solidified until you _couldn’t_ break out of them.”

“What’s that got to do with personality?”

“Well, they’d separated out these two genders so much, that the traits people needed for either of the roles were different. The traits people were groomed into. The dreams they were taught to want. The things they were allowed to have. And eventually, after centuries, someone looked and said, ‘These two sets of people act differently. Maybe it’s innate. Maybe they were born this way, and the different outside parts they have are the physical manifestation of inner differences.’ And that’s where we got these ideas like women are gentle or men are violent.”

“Or enbies are confused.”

Meledy turns her head in surprise. Rogue has spoken up, breaking their eerie silence for the first time. (They’re always like this around strangers, she knows. She’s met Rogue a few times when visiting with Yukino, and is just waiting to be on their list of safe people. Maybe this means she finally is.)

“That may be,” Rogue goes on, “but the world isn’t like that now. People aren’t restricted by pregnancy—or a lack thereof—anymore. Any parent can raise children, regardless of their gender, or have a sedentary job; and anyone can have an active job, particularly mages, because magic means you don’t have to worry about health concerns. So…”

Their brow creases, struggling. She waits patiently.

“So why does it still matter to people?”

“I don’t know,” Meledy sighs. “Maybe it took centuries for gender roles to be seen as innate traits; and maybe it’ll take centuries for us to stop.”

They give a depressed huff. “Delightful.”

She and Yukino give Rogue looks of sympathy.

“But hey,” Meledy says, “you’re talking to me now!”

After, when she gets home and Ultear kisses her hello, she starts to realize that this isn’t just better; it’s what she prefers. Yeah, sure, Meledy is a woman, but she’s also very much _not_ into gender roles. She’d like to be pregnant one day, and she’s certainly not going to let it slow her down. She is gentle sometimes and prickly others. She is just herself. And with Ultear, there is no expectation that she be anything else. There’s no pressure to fit a certain role because her partner is the other and overlap wouldn’t make sense. Because Ultear is everything and nothing, all at once, Meledy can be, too. They can be equals and partners and different and the same.

“I think I love you,” Meledy whispers against their lips.

“Y-You…” Ultear inhales, pulling away. “You do?”

“Yeah,” she smiles. “I do. Want to marry me?”

Ultear lets out a little sob of a laugh, tears springing to their eyes, and Meledy wraps her arms around them.

“Yes,” they say. “Absolutely.”


End file.
